“The Colbert Report” dedicated about a third of last night’s episode to a lively discussion about Prop 19 in California – and it was chalk full of gems. After rallying his audibly excited audience with an overview of where the measure stands (“If Prop 19 were a human, it would be the most popular candidate in California”), host Stephen Colbert turned to two guests – Joseph Califano, of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson – to argue for and against making marijuana legal.

Califano opposes Prop 19. The entire debate over marijuana, he said, comes down to children:

“We have two legal drugs in America – alcohol and tobacco – and we’ve had no success keeping them out of the hands of kids. So if you legalize pot in California, all the kids will have access to it.”

Yeah, I know. My head hurt when I heard this, too. It’s amazing how twisted, bankrupt, and dishonest a statement that is. First off, Califano conveniently ignores the fact that young people already have access to marijuana – better access than they do to alcohol and tobacco, because marijuana dealers aren’t required to check IDs. (On the same day this segment aired, a report from the International Centre for Science and Drug Policy said that despite decades of increased arrests, seizures, and enforcement efforts, marijuana remains “universally available” to young people.) Secondly, there has been a great deal of progress in recent years in lowering the use rates for alcohol, and especially tobacco, among young people. That success has come about through sensible regulations and fact-based education campaigns – not the criminalization of tobacco users.

If Califano truly believes we need to “change the culture” surrounding marijuana the same way society changed the culture surrounding tobacco, he should embrace the regulation of marijuana, accompanied by science-based education. But doing so could negatively affect the bottom line for the substance abuse centers Califano represents – and who depend on court-ordered entries for arrested marijuana users for a great deal of their business.

Luckily, Gary Johnson was there to inject some honesty into the conversation.

“I just think that there should be truth in this. I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t smoke pot, but I’ve drank alcohol and I’ve smoked pot, and I can tell you there’s a big difference between the two, and that is that marijuana is a lot safer than alcohol. I think you can introduce truth into the equation; we can tell our kids the truth regarding this. When it comes to the truth and my kids, I love them. I’d rather see them smoke marijuana than alcohol – but I don’t want them caught. I don’t want them subject to the criminal justice system when it comes to marijuana.”

Bravo, governor. It takes courage to say something like that, and by doing so on national television, Gary Johnson is making it easier for other public figures to follow suit.

How’s that for changing the culture?

Watch the entire segment below:

New Jersey’s Department of Health and Senior Services yesterday released long-awaited regulations for the medical marijuana program first approved by its state legislature in January. They are among the most stringent medical marijuana guidelines in the nation.

To qualify, patients must have one of nine conditions, and their doctor must treat them for at least one year (or have seen them four times) and show that other treatments have been ineffective. Patients can apply for the program starting next month, but none are expected to receive their medicine until at least summer 2011.

The law originally called for six nonprofit dispensaries to grow and sell marijuana to patients, but these latest rules scale that back to two growers for the entire state – who will supply only four nonprofit dispensaries statewide. (By comparison, Washington, D.C.’s medical marijuana regulations, which are also quite narrow, propose up to five dispensaries for the entire District). And, in what is perhaps the first requirement of its kind in the nation, New Jersey will limit the potency of all medical marijuana to just 10 percent THC.

“Overall, it seems the goal of the regulations is to provide the least amount of relief to the fewest number of patients,’’ DPA’s Roseanne Scotti told local news outlets. “This wasn’t what was foreseen by advocates. We already had the strictest law in the country; I didn’t think it could get any worse.”

A new report released today by the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy uses figures provided by the U.S. government to highlight the unquestionable failure of America’s marijuana prohibition to accomplish a single one of its goals. Reviewing 20 years of data, the report shows that despite drastically increased spending on enforcement efforts, including near record-level arrests and seizures, marijuana has become cheaper, more potent, and more available than ever. It concludes, “the legalization of cannabis, combined with the implementation of strict regulatory tools could help reduce cannabis-related harms, as research has demonstrated is successful in tobacco and alcohol control, when strictly enforced.”

Among the report’s findings:

• The annual overall budget for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy increased by more than 600%; growing from approximately $1.5 billion in 1981 to more than $18 billion in 2002 (the last year reliable figures were available).
• Between 1990 and 2006, marijuana-related arrests increased by 150%, while marijuana seizures increased by more than 400%.
• The estimated retail cost of marijuana decreased from $37 per gram in 1990 to $15 per gram in 2007.
• Marijuana has remained almost “universally available” to American youth during the last 30 years of prohibition.

The report is very clear in its endorsement of a regulated marijuana market over simply a decriminalized model, in which criminal penalties against users are removed, but the sale of marijuana would remain illegal, and therefore, in the hands of criminals. “Without regulatory controls allowing for limited distribution – as employed for other psychoactive substances such as alcohol and tobacco – organized crime groups continue to exercise control over the cannabis market,” the report states.

It goes on to explain that regulations could include “age restrictions, restricting driving or operating machinery while intoxicated, limiting hours of sale and outlet density, restricting bulk sales and limiting potency of legal cannabis.”

Boiled down, this is the same message that MPP and others have advocated for years: marijuana regulation is a far superior policy alternative to the chaotic and ineffective nature of prohibition.

On November 2, voters in California will have a historic opportunity to choose that superior alternative by voting yes on Prop 19.

You can read the entire ICSDP report here, or a summarized two-page fact sheet here. I highly recommend it.

Every day there are more and more stories in mainstream media outlets about Prop 19 and the growing national movement to end marijuana prohibition. That alone is a promising development. But what’s even more telling has been the way the tone of the coverage is starting to shift from asking, “Should marijuana be legal?” to, “Is marijuana going to be legal? And if so, when, where, and how?”

Check out just three examples from today:

Wall Street Journal: “Democrats Look to Cultivate Pot Vote in 2012”

Democratic strategists are studying a California marijuana-legalization initiative to see if similar ballot measures could energize young, liberal voters in swing states for the 2012 presidential election.

NPR: “Has the US Reached a Tipping Point on Pot?”

California’s Proposition 19, if approved by voters, will legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana legal for the first time in the United States. Many other states have relaxed their marijuana laws. Is this the tipping point when marijuana follows alcohol and gambling from criminal offense to harmless pastime — and source of new tax revenue?

New York Times: “Will California Show the Way on Marijuana?”

Like it or not, the tens of millions of people in California serve as a laboratory for new legislation, and their state sets a legal example that the rest of the states might follow. So, even if you do not live in California, pay attention to Proposition 19: maybe someday marijuana may come to a store near you.

In July, I wrote about the growing belief among political strategists that candidates can benefit from supporting marijuana reform. Just last week, the Oregon Democratic Party endorsed Measure 74, the ballot question that would add state-licensed dispensaries to that state’s medical marijuana law.

Remember who’s helping to fund the campaign against Prop 19.

Yesterday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that downgrades the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana from a misdemeanor to a civil infraction.

This new law means that the more than 60,000 people who are arrested in California every year for small-time marijuana possession will no longer be arrested, given criminal records, or have to appear in court. Instead, they will receive a $100 fine similar to a parking citation. SB 1449 will also save California untold millions in reduced court costs.

And as Paul Armentano at NORML points out, this change will still have a positive impact on California’s marijuana laws even if Prop 19, the measure to make marijuana legal for all adults, passes:

Proposition 19 leaves misdemeanor possession penalties in place for public use and smoking in the presence of children; under SB 1449, these offenses would be simple infractions.

Remember, only 17 days left to register to vote in California.

For the second time this week, a poll of likely California voters shows Proposition 19, the measure to make marijuana legal for all adults, ahead – this time by more than 50 percent.

In a just-released survey of 2,004 adult residents throughout the state, the Public Policy Institute of California shows Prop 19 leading by a margin of 52 to 41 percent. Earlier this week, the California Field Poll found Prop 19 up 49 to 42. Some details from the PPI poll:

Among California’s likely voters, 52 percent favor the proposition to legalize marijuana. Strong majorities of independent (65%), Democratic (63%), and Latino (63%) likely voters support Proposition 19 when read the full ballot title and label, as do those age 18–34 (70%). Half of voters (49%) say the outcome of Proposition 19 is very important, with those opposed to the initiative feeling stronger about the outcome: 65 percent of those who plan to vote no say the outcome is very important, compared to 42 percent of likely voters who plan to vote yes.

Again, these numbers are promising, but they’re no guarantee. All Californians who support sensible marijuana policies need to make sure to come out and vote yes on 19 Nov. 2 – and tell your friends and family to do so as well.

And if you haven’t already, also check out the Yes on 19 campaign site, and register to vote.

Check out this great video from LEAP, in which executive director Neill Franklin explains how prohibition has destroyed the relationship between law enforcement officers and the communities they police. “When I talk to young people, they say the only reason you come into our neighborhood is to search us for drugs,” says Franklin, a 33-year law enforcement veteran. “I want us — cops — to be the ones that kids can come up to in the streets when they have an issue or a problem. Not run in the other direction.”

The United States could improve its national budget by nearly $18 billion annually if we taxed and regulated marijuana like alcohol, according to a newly released study from the Cato Institute.

“The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition,” by Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron and Katherine Waldock, a doctoral candidate at the Stern School of Business at New York University, estimates the amount of money state and federal governments could both save from reduced expenditures and make from tax revenue, if marijuana and other drugs were made legal, taxed, and regulated.

The report concludes that, between savings and tax revenue, government budgets would improve by $17.4 billion annually if we regulated marijuana, and approximately $88 billion annually if we regulated all drugs.

Those are some pretty big numbers. But this part of the conclusion is what really caught my eye:

“About half of the budgetary improvement from legalization is due to reduced criminal justice expenditures. But for this component of the impact to show up in government budgets, policymakers would have to lay off police, prosecutors, prison guards, and the like. Because such a move would be politically painful, it may not occur. It is certainly true that reduced expenditure on enforcing drug prohibition can still be beneficial if those criminal justice resources are re-deployed to better uses, but that outcome is difficult to achieve.”

Politicians might not have the stomach for it, but luckily we live in a country where many states can enact laws through ballot initiatives, such as Prop 19, the marijuana legalization measure Californians will vote on this November. According to the Cato report, making marijuana legal in California could raise $351.88 million in tax revenue, and save about $959.75 million in government expenditures. That’s more than $1.3 billion annually.

In July, the California Board of Equalization estimated that the state could collect up to $1.4 billion by ending marijuana prohibition.

If California voters pass Prop 19 this November, Oregon state Rep. Peter Buckley (D) says he will introduce a similar measure in the Oregon legislature in 2011 to tax and regulate marijuana for adults. From the Mail Tribune:

In addition to raising revenue, Buckley said, it would dramatically reduce criminal activity now associated with it, including the illegal pot gardens now frequently found on area federal forestlands.

“But what happens in California is the key,” said Buckley, who is co-chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

“California is huge,” he said. “If California decides to legalize it, I want my colleagues to at least let Oregon voters weigh in on the issue.”

He believes that Oregonians likely would follow California’s lead, followed by residents in Washington state.

Californians approved that state’s landmark medical marijuana law 14 years ago; Oregonians followed suit four years later.

Prop 19 is currently ahead 49-42 in the latest poll. Can you feel the momentum?